Mehmed Ali’s impressive army regulations failed at the point of implementation

Evidence

Besides the usual problems that were mentioned in the previous chapters that related to lack of funds, cumbersome bureaucratic regulations, unrealistic demands by the Pasha, and internal divisions among the elite itself (represented by the problems that Clot Bey had with the War Department), this chapter touched on the issue of resistance by the soldiers to the authorities’ regulations and concluded with the apparently trivial, but crucial problems that the authorities had with guards and sentries. Passing laws that forbade prostitutes from ever entering or approaching military camps, issuing regulations that prevented soldiers from having access to the outside world, printing tezkeres that soldiers had to have on them if they left military precincts – all were impressive innovations that characterized Mehmed Ali’s regime. Impressive as they might be, however, they did not guarantee that the Pasha’s will went fulfilled. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1179